TrendNet TEG-284WS Smart Switch WAN access
-
Hi. Not sure if this is the right forum but I thought I'd start here. Please redirect me if this is not the place.
Long story short, I am trying to get a TrendNet TEG-284WS switch to work with pfSense and am failing to get from a Client PC to the internet... This is my intended home lab configuration. There's a lot there but we can mostly focus on the top part of the diagram.
What I've done so far is to install and configure pfSense on a Beelink GTi11 mini-pc (FW on top left of the diagram) with dual NICs. Incidentally, I have to use the current development branch of pfSense because it is the only one with a kernel that recognizes the I225 NICs in this device. Seems to work fine by itself -- I can get out to the public internet okay. I used another Beelink Gti11 (shown Desktop Management I/F on bottom left) running Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 (it uses the NICs just fine out of the box) to access the pfSense configuration UI and test internet access. The Ubuntu Desktop PC was directly connected to the LAN interface of the pfSense box getting its IP assigned by DHCP from pfSense. The IP assignments are as indicated with pfSense being the bridge between the public facing WAN with a gateway of 192.168.51.1 and a private net with CIDR of subnet 10.24.0.0/16. So far, all is good. Firefox on the desktop can browse with no issues.
Now comes the TrendNet TEG-284WS to the party. I started off by connecting the Ubuntu Desktop mini to the switch and assigning it a static IP (because the TrendNet default management interface address is on 192.168.10.200). I was able to get to the TrendNet UI and change its IP to 10.42.1.2 so that it was in the subnet pfSense is serving. Changed the Ubuntu Desktop back to a static IP in the 10.42 subnet and connected the pfSense device to the switch.
At this point, the Ubuntu Desktop can access both the TrendNet UI and the pfSense UI through the switch so I know they can all talk to each other. What it can't do yet is access the internet. I tried what I thought was correct: setting the Ubuntu Desktop LAN gateway to the switch IP and the switch default gateway to the pfSense IP but no luck. Tried setting the Ubuntu Desktop directly to the pfSense IP but still no luck. I haven't done any kind of configuration around VLANS, excepting that the TrendNet has a default VLAN and that's where you have to configure the default gateway IP. Ping and nslookup fail from the desktop, succeed from the pfSense gui (accessed from the desktop).
I'm thinking it may have something to do with VLANs (TrendNet support says no) and/or trunk definition per the pfSense documentation. The TrendNet documentation seems to have a non-standard definition of trunk that I would have called port teaming or bonding:
The trunking function enables the cascading of two or more ports for a combined larger total bandwidth.
Does anyone have any experience using this switch with pfSense or have an idea how I need to configure it to get access to the WAN from the desktop?
-
@jimcakalic said in TrendNet TEG-284WS Smart Switch WAN access:
TrendNet TEG-284WS
That's a layer 2 switch so you should not be using it's IP as a gateway for anything. The switch IP is only there for you to access it's management.
The desktop should be using the pfSense LAN IP for everything; gateway, DNS etc. You probably have a misconfig because you're using static IPs. I would start out by using DHCP and allowing pfSense to pass the expected values to the client.
Steve
-
@stephenw10 Okay. I did try setting the Ubuntu client gateway to the pfSense IP but I did not have that client getting its IP by DHCP from pfSense. I'll try that. Ultimately, I'll want to have a bunch of nodes in a cluster with static IPs but I was planning to do that with DHCP reservations. I took a short cut and perhaps it bit me. Thanks.
-
I would guess the client has no DNS set statically so it can't reach anything by URL. It should still be able to pin 8.8.8.8 for example. DHCP just takes care of that for you and removes typos as a source if problems so I usually try that first.
Steve
-
@stephenw10 Wanted to close this thread by thanking you for your advice. You were absolutely right. I had to solve an issue with the pfSense box not completing boot cycle when not connected to a display but that was, in the end, just a cabling concern once I had the correct cable in hand... But then, reset the switch to factory defaults just to be sure, changed the desktop IPv4 settings to get its address by DHCP from the pfSense box and voila! she has WAN access now. Thanks again!
